Posted tagged ‘neighborhood beautification’

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First Tree Box on Georgia Avenue Gets Flowers

June 16, 2017

Digging into the hard, backed soil in front of Walters.

On Thursday night, June 15th, Commissioner Boese with volunteers from Georgia Avenue Thrive planted begonias in the tree box in front of Walters Sports Bar (3632 Georgia Avenue). Prior to the event, Annie’s Ace Hardware set aside the flowers which Boese provided. EatsPlace also provided lemonade for the volunteers.

I can tell you it was a lot of work. The soil was clay and compacted making digging with a shovel impossible, so a garden mattock was used.  Once enough of the hard, clay soil had been loosened up, mulch was used to help amend he soil. After that the begonias went in.

While the project is largely done, additional much will be required. Fortunately, there is already mulch available.

There were a number of lessons learned from the effort, the primary one being that the tree boxes on Georgia are composed primarily of  compacted clay with is very difficult t dig into.

(Finishing up the evening’s work.)

Categories: Community Involvement, Volunteerism
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Help Add Some Color to Georgia Avenue with Flowers

June 13, 2017

Here’s a collaboration between Georgia Avenue Thrive and myself to begin adding some beauty to the tree boxes on Georgia Avenue. We’re going to kick it off this Thursday in front of DC Reynolds by planting begonias in the tree box in front of their business. This is a great opportunity to volunteer. Depending upon how well this goes, additional tree boxes will be considered for future plantings. See the flyer below for details.

Categories: Community Involvement
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Rain Doesn’t Dampen Spirits as Park View Earth Day Beautification Commences

April 24, 2017

While Saturday’s rain didn’t provide the ideal circumstances hoped for for the Earth Day activities planned by the Park View UNC and Georgia Avenue Thrive, it didn’t prevent volunteers from sticking to the task at hand. Two areas in Park View were the focus of cleaning up planting beds and planting flowers — the front of the Park View Recreation Center and the garden area around the gateway sign at Georgia Avenue and Irving Street. As you can see from the short video below, this wasn’t entirely an easy task.

Below are some additional photos highlighting the results.

Categories: Community Involvement, Volunteerism
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Beautification Continues on Irving Street

June 11, 2012

After stopping by to check on the new Park View Welcome sign that I reported on last Monday, I’m happy to report that the new sign was not the end of beautifying the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Irving, but the beginning. On Sunday morning I had the pleasure to speak with three of the residents who were watering newly planted knockout roses and a boxwood. I understand that there are still more plants coming and that the pictures below do not represent a completed garden just yet.


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Categories: Gateway signs, Lawns and gardens, streetscape
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Street Trash a Hugh Neighborhood Issue

April 5, 2011

610 Newton Place, NW, has been owned by the New Commandment Baptist Church since 2008. The church is located at 625 Park Road. Future plans for the property is not known at this time

While there has been a general outcry against the amount of tagging/graffiti that has cropped up along Georgia Avenue in recent weeks, something that is equally troublesome is trash and litter strewn along our streets.

I’ve long been mystified by the amount of clamshell food containers, empty liquor bottles, and general trash that can be found on our neighborhood’s streets. Often times you can find a crack bag or empty condom wrapper in the parkway in front of an otherwise well maintained row of homes. Sharing my frustration, residents in southern Park View largely along the Irving Street corridor have formed the Park View Beautification Crew and are now documenting their efforts on their own blog. Their community involvement and activism is something many of us should aspire to.

One resident's attempt to arrest public urination at their property

One street that has been a perpetual problem is the 600 block of Newton. The large, vacant apartment buildings on the south side of the block only serve to exacerbate the problem. Across the street from these apartments one resident has posted a sign (right) in an attempt to stop public urination on their property.

If ever there was a block in need of a Ward-1 Fix It crew, this would be it. Yet, I have little faith that cleaning up this area would last beyond a few days. Below are a few more images of the area around the empty apartment building.


The front yard of 610 Newton Place as seen on April 2, 2011

Looking west on the 600 b/o Newton Place toward the Ward 1 Senior Wellness Center/Georgia Avenue

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Categories: Community Involvement, Street trash
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Barbed Wire Along Park Place Scheduled for Removal

May 25, 2010

One good piece of news I learned last week is that all the old barbed wire on the Soldiers’ Home fence along Park Place is scheduled to be removed as part of the ongoing maintenance plan at AFRH.  The maintenance workers are taking it down as they have the time.

According to the AFRH, it is a time-consuming task because the wire is rusty and needs to be handled with great care so the workers don’t hurt themselves. That said, the administrators at AFRH anticipates that it will all be taken down by the end of the year

The barbed wire along Rock Creek Church Road was removed last year.

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Categories: Restoration repair and maintenance, Streets and Trees
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Derelict Utility Box Removed from Quebec Place

April 9, 2010

Derelict utility box on 600 block of Quebec Place

I really have to give it to Sybongile Cook and Timothy Vafides, our Ward 1 Mayor’s Liaison to Community Relations & Services representatives.

At the end of January I alerted them to a derelict utility box on the 600 block of Quebec Place. A resident of the street had pointed out that it no longer had a door and has been collecting trash, among other things.

After researching the history of the box and determining if there were any live wires underground beneath it, a crew was on site Wednesday (4/7/10) to remove it.

Site of former utility box today

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Categories: City services, Restoration repair and maintenance
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Rec Center Beautification Day Successful

March 29, 2010

Volunteers & neighbors preparing the flower beds for planting

The beautification and clean up day at the Rec Center was relatively successful. While there was not an overwhelming number of volunteers and neighbors, those that were able to assist made the most of the day. The flower beds were turned and pansies and seeds planted. Hopefully we’ll see the fruits of their labors before too long.

Additionally, the general clean up not only focused on the area around the Rec Center, but as v0lunteers were available the streets closest to the center between Georgia and Park Place got a little TLC. There were even two volunteers from Bethesda who had heard about the event.

Graffiti is no match for Sybongile Cook

One thing that was close to my heart was the removal of graffiti. Sybongile Cook, from the Mayor’s Office, not only chipped in by cleaning the graffiti off of the utility box outside of Gee’s Market, she turned me on to the product she was using — Sensitive Surface Graffiti Remover.

This stuff is great. I was able to borrow a bottle and used it to clean the graffiti off of the mailbox at Warder and Quebec as well as all the graffiti off of the Metrobus stop, stop sign, and do not enter sign at the southwest corner of Warder and Rock Creek Church Road.

In addition to DPR, other organizations that were on site were MPD and the DC Fire Dept. Folks were also able to get a free HIV test.

You can see a few more images of the day below.

Neighbors preparing to plant pansies

One young volunteer enjoying the day

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Categories: City services, Community Involvement, Parks and Green spaces
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Park View Beautification Day on Saturday, 3/27/10

March 25, 2010

The Rec Center will be the focus of a community beautification day this Saturday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Back on March 8th I asked if it was time to have a community clean up. Well, here is a golden opportunity for those that expressed interest to help clean up the neighborhood and meet each other.

A number of City agencies will be on-site at the Park View Rec Center this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  for a community clean up. All interested residents are encouraged to assist, get to know each other, and get to know the staff that support the center. 

I think it’s a great opportunity for all to start working together and address any and all concerns related to the facility. Full details are below:

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Categories: Community Involvement, Sports leisure and entertainment
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Is it Time for a Neighborhood Clean Up?

March 8, 2010

Litter and debris left after melting snow, corner of Park Place and Park Road

While its nice to see that most of the snow is finally gone, one thing that isn’t nice is all the trash that is left behind.

When the plows and scoops got the snow out of the streets, they apparently also scooped up all the trash and left it in the snow piles as well.

Now that it’s getting warm enough, is it time to organize a community clean up to get things nice and tidy again? Does anyone have any ideas on where the biggest trouble spots are? Additionally, has anyone organized one before?

I know we can all pick up the trash in front of our homes without making  a day of it, but it just strikes me that it would be more enjoyable if this were a community event and I know there are some areas that aren’t any particular person’s responsibility.

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Categories: Community Involvement, Random Observations
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